The present invention relates to a noise suppressing arrangement of a fuel tank mounted on a vehicle.
Japanese Utility Model Application Provisional Publication No. 54-22807 discloses a fuel tank wherein in order to restrain movement of liquid fuel within a container, a baffle plate structure including a plurality of steel plates which have their upper flanges spot welded to an upper inner wall of the container. When the vehicle starts or decelerates, the liquid fuel tends to move in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle and this longitudinal movement of the liquid fuel is impeded by these steel plates, decreasing force which the liquid fuel impinges against the inner wall of the container, thus decreasing noise occurring upon this impingement. This known fuel tank has a problem that the spot welded portions are subject to a great stress since the baffle plate structure that is rigid withstands against the rapid movement of the liquid fuel. Therefore, in order to prevent crack initiation of the container due to the concentration of the load, it is impossible to reduce the thickness of the container below a predetermined value. There is the limit to reduction of weight of the fuel tank.
An object of the present invention is to provide a fuel tank which is improved such that, without any considerable reduction in capacity of a container of the fuel tank and without any considerable increase in weight of the fuel tank, a force with which liquid fuel impinges upon the inner wall of the container is reduced to reduce the noise level caused by this impingement, and waves on the surface of the liquid fuel are dissipated and disappear.